PHYSICOOL IN SPORTS INJURY TREATMENT AND REHABILITATION

Physicool is a sports injury treatment and kit-bag essential. Used by sports enthusiasts, athletes, therapists and coaches; Physicool is used to treat acute injuries or systematically used throughout training for recovery. Physicool has become a reliable rehabilitation essential, enabling athletes and sport enthusiasts to recover quicker, train harder and reach peak performance.

"We use the Cooling Bandage to aid recovery. Physicool greatly reduces swelling and inflammation, reducing pain, whilst helping speed up the recovery process – getting players back on their feet faster"
- Dan Martin, Head of Medical Services, Bristol Rugby Club.

SPORTS INJURY TREATMENT

Cooling therapy (known as cryotherapy) in used within sports injury treatment to reduce tissue temperature, blood flow, pain, and metabolism in the affected area. It is a well-researched treatment particularly for soft tissue injuries such as sprains and strains.

When an injury occurs, there is inflammation and pain. Oedema (swelling) occurs due to an increase in local blood flow to the injured site. The application of Physicool’s cooling bandage reduces the tissue temperature around the injured site resulting in constriction of the local blood vessels; therefore reducing blood flow and swelling, treating the injured area. Reducing the amount of swelling early on will reduce the pain as the nerve endings at the injury site will not be as compressed. Therefore, the sooner Physicool is used to treat a sports injury, the greater the benefit and the speedier the rehabilitation.

SPORTS REHABILITATION

Cooling treatment is used to reduce the recovery time as part of a sport rehabilitation program. Physicool is successfully used post race/match to cool and compress the target muscles. This offers the muscle-recovery benefits of an ice bath but without the ice water and chilling pain. Physicool is used to speed up recovery, reduce muscle pain and relieve soreness; increasing successive performance.

Although cooling therapy is effective with few complications or side-effects, prolonged application of ice based remedies (ice, icepacks, icewraps) should be avoided as this may cause serious side-effects, such as frost-bite and nerve injuries (Swensen, 1996). There is evidence that even applying ice wrapped in a towel can lead to frostbite (Graham, 2000). 

Physicool provides a much safer alternative to cooling with ice-based products.

REFERENCES:

Kennet J, Hardaker N, Hobbs S, Selfe J; Cooling Efficiency of 4 Common Cryotherapeutic AgentsSwenson C, Swärd L, Karlsson J; Cryotherapy in sports medicine. Scand J Med Sci Sports, 1996 Aug;6(4):193-200. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8896090Graham CA, Stevenson J, Frozen chips: an unusual cause of severe frostbite injury, Br J Sports Med 2000;34:382-383 http://bjsm.bmj.com/content/34/5/382.abstract